NOTE: What was the final
straw of all the grievances against the English Crown that
finally started the Revolutionary War?

Was it taxation without representation, high tariffs, corrupt
British officials, or the quartering of troops among the
colonists? NO! The Revolutionary War began when British troops
were sent to Lexington and Concord to confiscate American’s
firearms and gunpowder! Gun confiscation was the match that lit
the Revolutionary War.

I could write endless pages about our ‘Right to keep and bear
arms’, but I, Pastor Joe would rather let the "Experts" tell you
in their own words – after all these are the men who wrote the
constitution and the 2nd Amendment. Perhaps they know
best.

Second Amendment– The right to keep and bear
arms.

"A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of
a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms
shall not be infringed."

"The whole of the Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the
right of the people at large or considered as individuals…It
establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and
which consequently, no majority has the right to deprive them
of." –Albert Gallatin, October 7, 1789, New York Historical
Society

"...the people are confirmed by the next article in their
right to keep and bear their private arms"

–
from article in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette
June 18, 1789 at 2, col.2.

"That the said Constitution shall never be construed to
authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or
the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of The United
States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own
arms..."

–Samuel Adams, Debates
and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, at 86-87 (Pierce & Hale, eds,
Boston, 1850).

"The prohibition is general. No clause in the Constitution
could by any rule of construction be conceived to give to
Congress a power to disarm the people. Such a flagitious attempt
could only be made under some general pretense by a state
legislature. But if in any blind pursuit of inordinate power,
either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a
restraint on both."

–William Rawle, A View of the Constitution 125-6 (2nd ed. 1829)

"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly
been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a
republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the
usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally,
even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the
people to resist and triumph over them."

–Joseph
Story, called the father of America’s
Jurisprudence, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United
States; With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History
of the Colonies and States before the Adoption of the
Constitution [Boston, 1833].

"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution
itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and the
keystone under independence." –George Washington

COMMENTARIES ON RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The
strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear
arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny
in government." –Thomas Jefferson papers

"It is not certain that with this aid alone [possession of
arms], they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were
the people to posses the additional advantages of local
governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national
will, and direct the national force; and of officers appointed
out of the militia, by these governments and attached both to
them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest
assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be
speedily overturned, in spite of the legions which surround it."

–James Madison, Federalist No. 46.

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of
people always possess arms, and be taught alike especially when
young, how to use them."

–Richard Henry Lee,
1788, Initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member
of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights, Walter
Bennett, ed., Letters from the Federal Farmer to
the Republican, at 21,22,124 (Univ. of Alabama
Press, 1975)

"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing
degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our
defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in
possession and under our direction, and having them under the
management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of
having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more
propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?"

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is
that they be properly armed."

–Alexander
Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at
184-8

"The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are
left in full possession of them." –Zachariah Johnson

"A free people ought … to be armed …" –George Washington

"… the people have a right to keep and bear arms." –Patrick
Henry and George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 386

"Arms in the hands of citizens [may] be used at individual
discretion for the defense of the country, the overthrow of
tyranny, or in private self-defense …" –John Adams

"The great object is that every man be armed" and "everyone
who is able may have a gun."

–Patrick Henry, in
the Virginia Convention on the ratification of the Constitution.
Debates and other Proceedings of the Convention of
Virginia … taken in shorthand by David
Robertson of Petersburg, at 271, 275 2d ed.
Richmond, 1805. Also 3 Elliot, Debates
at 386

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms…disarm only those who
are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws
make things worse for the assaulted and better for the
assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent
homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater …
confidence than an armed man."

"The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian;
while on the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the
invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the
world as well as property. The same balance would be preserved
were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike;
but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside…Horrid
mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use
of them…" –Thomas Paine, Writings of Thomas Paine, at
56,1894, Thoughts on Defensive War (1775).

"When firearms go, all goes; we need them every hour."
–George Washington

"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of
exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise
to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to
the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature,
are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.
Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks."
–Thomas Jefferson, The Encyclopedia of T. Jefferson, 318,
Foley, Ed.

When speaking in Virginia in a fiery speech for freedom,
Patrick Henry proclaimed; "… an appeal to arms and to the God of
hosts is all that is left us!"

Warning

"The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be
needed until they try to take it." –Thomas Jefferson,
Thomas Jefferson Papers